[PAGE 1]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY




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             [ T H E  R O S I C R U C I A N  P H I L O S O P H Y ]
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             [    Q U E S T I O N S  A N D  A N S W E R S        ]
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             [                 V O L U M E  I I                  ]
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             [            B Y  M A X  H E I N D E L              ]
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                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                         International Headquarters
                                P.O. Box 713
                      Oceanside, California, U.S.A., 92054





[PAGE 3]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                          PARTIAL LIST OF SUBJECTS

SECTION I.         Life After Death......................................7

                   The Purgatorial Existence
                   How Are the "Dead" Clothed?
                   A Short Cut to Heaven
                   Earthbound Spirits
                   Reunion of Lovers in Heaven

SECTION II.        Rebirth..............................................53

                   Frequency of Rebirth
                   The Necessity of Rebirth
                   Rebirth of Children
                   Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?
                   Rebirth and Sex

SECTION III.       Health and Healing..................................115

                   Procedure with So-Called Incurable Diseases
                   Morphine and Post-Mortem Consciousness
                   Idiocy and Insanity
                   Effects of Amputation
                   Destroying Sick Vibrations

SECTION IV.        The Invisible Worlds................................157

                   Consciousness in the Invisible World
                   People in the Desire World See the Sun
                   A Dream Problem
                   The Trance State
                   Contact with Relatives During Sleep

SECTION V.         Spiritual Sight.....................................199

                   The Method of Spiritual Cognition
                   The Fourth Dimension
                   The Memory of Nature

SECTION VI.        Initiation..........................................215

                   The Plane of Initiation
                   The Tests of Initiation
                   Creating a New Body
                   Masters and Initiation
                   Why Most Initiates Are Men


[PAGE 4]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

SECTION VII.       The Bible...........................................233

                   Teachings Concerning Jehovah

                   Raising the Dead
                   Natural Riches and Spirituality
                   Resurrection of the Body
                   The Immaculate Conception
                   Why the Jews Keep the Sabbath
                   Meaning of the Letters I.N.R.I.

SECTION VIII.      Astrology...........................................341

                   Astrological Origin of Conscientiousness
                   Plants Affected by Planets
                   Influence of the Pleiades and Orion
                   The Time of the Aquarian Age
                   The Actuality of the Aquarian Age

SECTION IX.        Miscellaneous.......................................404

                   Mother Love a Factor in Materialization
                   Atlanteans Who Had Not Evolved Lungs
                   The Cause and Cure of Sleepwalking
                   Proving Existence of Vital Body
                   Happiness in the Higher Life
                   The Wedding Garment

SECTION X.         Index...............................................561

                               ---------------

                              LIST OF DIAGRAMS

The Seven Days of Creation...............................................8
A Life Cycle............................................................52
The Seven Worlds.......................................................116
The Relative Permanency of the Visible and Invisible
         Worlds........................................................158

The Four Kingdoms......................................................200
The Caduceus...........................................................214
Vehicles of Highest Initiates and Ordinary Humanity....................232
The Tenfold Constitution of Man........................................342
As Above, So Below.....................................................405


[PAGE 5]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                            A WORD OF EXPLANATION

   The questions contained in this book were answered by Max Heindel in RAYS
FROM THE ROSE CROSS during the years between 1913 and 1919.   Since most  of
these magazines are now out of print, this compilation is for the purpose of
sharing  with the general public in book form much valuable occult  informa-
tion from the pen of Max Heindel which would otherwise not be easily  avail-
able.

   For  the  benefit of those not familiar with the teachings given  in  THE
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION,  we give the following information  concerning
the Western Wisdom Teachings and the terms used.  With these basic facts, it
will be easy for anyone to understand the answers to the questions.   It may
also be in place to state here that each question has been answered  regard-
less of what has been said in answer to any other question, so that each an-
swer is complete in itself.   This has occasioned repetition of some  things
said  in answer to one question when replying to another which  is  similar,
but  it will be found that in all cases where there is such a repetition  it
presents a new aspect of the subject, thus giving added information.

                             * * * * * * * * * *

   The Rosicrucian Philosophy teaches that man is a complex being,  an  Ego,
or threefold Spirit possessing:

   (1)   A DENSE BODY, composed  of  the  solids,  liquids and gasses of the


[PAGE 6]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

Physical World.   It is the visible instrument he uses here in this world to
fetch and carry--the body people ordinarily think of as the whole man.

   (2)   A VITAL BODY,  which is made of ether and interpenetrates the  vis-
ible body as ether permeates all other forms,  except that human beings spe-
cialize  a  greater amount of the universal ether than  other  forms.   This
ethereal  body  is our instrument for specializing the vital energy  of  the
sun, and for carrying on the functions of assimilation, growth, propagation,
etc.

   (3)   A DESIRE BODY,  which is our emotional nature.   This finer vehicle
pervades both the dense and vital bodies.   It is seen by clairvoyant vision
to extend about sixteen inches outside the visible body, which is located in
the center of this ovoid cloud as the yolk is in the center of an egg.   The
desire body contains sense centers which, when properly developed, are man's
means of perception in the Desire World.

   (4)    THE MIND,  which is a mirror,  reflecting the outer world and  en-
abling the Ego to transmit its commands as thought and word.  It is the link
between  the  Spirit  and its bodies.   At the present time  it  is  but  an
unformed cloud, but will eventually be as well organized as man's other bod-
ies.

   THE EGO is the threefold Spirit which uses these vehicles to gather expe-
rience in the school of life and transmute it into soul power.


[PAGE 7]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                                  SECTION I

                           QUESTIONS DEALING WITH


                              LIFE AFTER DEATH


[PAGE 8]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY




                                 DIAGRAM 13A

                         THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION     


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          |    [  Stage of Unconscious  ]    |    [  Stage of Conscious   ]   |
          |    [      Involution.       ]    |    [      Evolution.       ]   |
          |    [  Growth of the 3-fold  ]    |    [  Growth of the 3-fold ]   |
          |<---[  body, the focus of    ]--->|<---[ by right action, right]-->|
          |    [  mind & attainment of  ]    |    [    feeling and right  ]   |
          |    [  self-consciousness.   ]    |    [        thought.       ]   |
          |                                  |                                |
          |                                  |                                |
          |                                  |                                |
          ||--------|                        |                        |-------|
          ||THRONES |                        |                        |We will| 
  World   ||awakened|                        |                        |  be   |
   of     || the    |                        |                        | God-  |
  Divine  ||Divine  |                        |                        |  Men  |
  Spirit  || Spirit |                        |                        |  and  |
          || in man |                        |                        | Crea-
----------||and gave|----------------------- |------------------------|--tors-|
  World   ||him  the||--------|              |               |-------||  by   |
   of     || thought||CHERUBIM|              |               |We will||Amalga-|
  Life    ||form  of||awakened|              |               | be    || mating|
  Spirit  ||   a    ||  the   |              |               | Demi- || the   |
----------||-Dense--||-Life---|--------------|---------------|-Gods--||-3-fold|
W Region  || Body.  || Spirit ||--------|    |     |--------|| and   || Soul  |
O  of     ||        || in Man ||SERAPHIM|    |     |We will ||extract|| with  |
R Abstract||        ||and gave||awakened|    |     |  be    ||  the  ||  the  |
L Thought || Lords  ||him  a  ||  the   | We are   |Super-  || Emo-  || Mind. |
D         ||   of   ||germinal|| Human  | human    |  Man   ||tional ||       |
          ||  Mind  || Vital  || Spirit | here>>   |  and   || Soul  ||       |
O ........||..were..||.Body...||and gave|.....\|/..|.extract||.from..||.......|
F         || human. || which  ||the germ||--------||  the   ||  the  || Mine- |
          ||        ||  was   || of the || LORDS  ||Intel-  || Desire|| rals  |
T Region  ||        ||then  a || Desire ||  OF    ||lectual || Body. ||will be|
H   of    ||        || thought||  Body  || FORM   ||  Soul  ||       || human.|
O Concrete||        ||  form. || which  ||        ||  from  ||       ||       |
U Thought || Globes ||        ||was then||  Mind  ||  the   ||       || Globes|
G         || of the ||        ||   a    ||given by|| Vital  ||Plants ||of  the|
H         || SATURN ||        || thought||Lords of|| Body.  ||will be|| VULCAN|
T         || PERIOD ||        ||  form. ||  Mind  ||        ||human. || PERIOD|
          ||--------||        ||        ||is now a||        ||       ||-------|
----------|----------|--------||--------||-thought||--------||-------|---------
  Desire  |          |        ||        || form.  ||        ||       |
  World   |          |        ||        ||        || Animals||       |
          |          | Globes ||        ||  Con-  ||will be || Globes|
          |          | of the ||        || scious || human. ||of  the|
          |          |  SUN   ||        ||  Soul  ||        || VENUS |
          |          | PERIOD ||        ||  ex-   ||        || PERIOD|
          |          |--------||        || tracted||        ||-------|
----------|--------------------|--------||-from---||--------|------------------
P         |                    |        || Dense  ||        | 
H         |                    |        || Body. M||        |
Y         |                    | Globes ||M      E|| Globes |
S Etheric |                    | of the ||A      R|| of the |
I Region  |                    |  MOON  ||R      C|| JUPITER|
C         |                    | PERIOD ||S      U|| PERIOD |
A         |                    |--------||1/2    R||--------|
L ........|..............................|.......Y|............................
          |                              |     1/2|
W         |                              | Globes |
O Chemical|                              | of the |
R Region  |                              | EARTH  |
L         |                              | PERIOD |
D         |                              |--------| 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Involution brings the spirit              Evolution lifts the spirit out of
down into matter by crystal-              matter by spiritualizing the bodies
lizing it into bodies.                    into soul.

                Epigenesis, the original creative activity
                of the spirit, is the lever and the Mind
                is the fulcrum upon which Involution turns
                to Evolution.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------






[PAGE 9]                                              ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                          THE PURGATORIAL EXISTENCE

                               QUESTION NO. 1.

   DOES THE PURGATORIAL EXPERIENCE OF THE EGO CONTINUE FROM DEATH UNTIL  THE
PANORAMA REACHES THE BIRTH OF THE LIFE JUST ENDED,  OR ARE THERE PERIODS  OF
RESPITE BETWEEN THE END OF SUFFERING FOR THIS,  THAT,  OR THE OTHER DEED AND
THE BEGINNING OF SUFFERING FOR THE NEXT?

   ANSWER:   NATURE,  WHICH IS GOD IN MANIFESTATION, always aims at the con-
servation of energy,  attaining the greatest results with the least expendi-
ture of force and the least waste of energy.   The Law of Analogy applies to
this case.  If we study the effect of change in the physical world, we shall
learn something of its consequence in the realm above us.   A person who  is
here  suffering acutely for a short time usually feels pin  very  intensely;
whereas those who suffer for years in succession,  though the pain which  is
inflicted upon them may be as severe,  do not seem to feel the suffering  in
the same measure.   They have,  as it were,  grown used thereto,  and  their
frame  has in a certain sense become emaciated and adjusted to  pain;  hence
suffering is not felt as keenly by these as by the person in the first case.

   It  is  similar in the purgatorial experience.   When a  person  (man  or
woman) has been very hard and harsh in life,  when he has thought nothing of
the  feelings  of others, when he has inflicted severe pain here, there, and


[PAGE 10]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

everywhere on whatever occasion offered, we shall find that HIS SUFFERING IN
PURGATORY  WILL BE VERY SEVERE,  intensified of course by the fact that  the
purgatorial  experience is shorter than the life lived upon earth;  but  the
pain is intensified in proportion.   Now, therefore,  it is evident that  if
his experience were continuous,  if the pain engendered by one act were fol-
lowed immediately by the next,  much of the effect of the suffering would be
lost upon the soul because it would not feel its full intensity.   Therefore
the experiences, as it were, come to them in waves so that there is a period
of  respite after each period of suffering in order that the full  intensity
OF THE NEXT may be felt.

   Some may think,  of course, that this is cruel, and that it is inflicting
pain needlessly,  taking advantage of every finesse to make the suffering as
acute as possible.  This is not so, however.  While the effect is there, the
motive  is a greater good,  for nature, or God,  never seeks to  revenge  or
avenge any wrong,  but only to teach those who permit themselves to do wrong
not to repeat the act, by giving the wrong-doer exactly pain for pain.   The
tendency in a future life is to cause him to respect the feelings of  others
and  so be merciful to all the world.   Thus the very highest  intensity  in
pain is necessary for the conservation of energy,  and to make him good  and
pure sooner than would be the case if the pain were continuous and the  suf-
fering correspondingly lessened.


[PAGE 11]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                         HOW ARE THE "DEAD" CLOTHED?

                               QUESTION NO. 2


   HOW DO THE SO-CALLED DEAD APPEAR AS TO OUTER APPAREL?  HOW ARE THEY CLAD?
DOES  THEIR THOUGHT MOLD THE ETHEREAL MATTER INTO GARMENTS OR ANYTHING  THEY
DESIRE?   ONE WOULD JUDGE SO FROM WHAT IS SAID IN THE COSMO ABOUT THE DESIRE
WORLD.   DOES THE DESIRE BODY TAKE THE SHAPE OF THE DENSE  BODY  IMMEDIATELY
AFTER THE SILVER CORD IS SEVERED?

   ANSWER:   It is possible for the so-called dead to form by their thoughts
any  article of clothing they desire.  They usually think of  themselves  as
being  clothed in the conventional garb of the country in which  they  lived
prior to their passing into the Desire World,  and therefore they appear  so
clothed without any particular effort of thought.   But when they desire  to
obtain something new or an unusual article of clothing,  naturally they have
to use their will power to bring that thing into existence;  and such an ar-
ticle of clothing will last as long as the person thinks of himself as being
clad in that apparel.

   But  this amenability of desire stuff to the molding power of thought  is
also used in other directions.  Generally speaking, when a person leaves the
present world in consequence of an accident,  he thinks of himself as  being
disfigured by that accident in a certain manner,  perhaps minus a leg or arm
or with a hole  in  the  head.  This  does  not inconvenience him at all; he


[PAGE 12]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

can  move about there of course just as easily without arms or legs as  with
them; but it shows the tendency of thought to shape the desire body.  At the
beginning of the war when great numbers of soldiers passed over into the De-
sire World with lesions of the most horrible nature,  the Elder Brothers and
their  pupils taught these men that by merely holding the thought that  they
were sound of limb and body, they would at once be healed of their disfigur-
ing wounds.   This they immediately did.  Now all newcomers,  when they  are
able  to understand matters over there,  are at once healed of their  wounds
and amputations in this manner,  so that to look at them nobody would  think
they had passed over in consequence of an accident in the physical world.

   As  a  result this knowledge has become so general that many  people  who
have  passed over since have availed themselves of this property  of  desire
stuff  and  have molded it by thought in case they wanted  to  change  their
bodily appearance.   Some times those who are very corpulent want to  appear
more slim and, vice versa, those who are very thin want to appear as if they
had more flesh.   This change or transformation is not permanently  success-
ful,  however,  on account of the archetype.  The extra flesh put on a  thin
person  or the quantity taken off one who is corpulent does not stay  on  or
off permanently,  but after a while the man who was originally thin  returns
to this original stature, while the person who tries to take off flesh finds


[PAGE 13]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

himself putting it back on by degrees,  and then has to go through the  pro-
cess anew.  It is similar with people who attempt to mold their features and
change them to an appearance that suits them better than their original one.
However,  changes affecting the features are less permanent because the  fa-
cial  expression there has here is an indication of the nature of the  soul;
therefore  whatever is sham is quickly dispersed by the habitual thought  of
the person.

   With  regard to the second part of the question,  we may say that  during
physical  life  the desire body is shaped more or less like an  ovoid  cloud
surrounding the dense body.   But as soon as the person gains  consciousness
in  the Desire World and begins to think of himself as having the  shape  of
the  dense  body,  then the desire body begins to assume  that  form.   This
transformation  is facilitated by the fact that the soul body,  composed  of
the two higher ethers, the light and the reflecting ether, is still with the
man the Ego.   To put it more clearly and bring in a helpful comparison,  we
may remember that at the time when the Ego is coming down to rebirth the two
lower ethers gathered around the seed atom of the vital body are molded into
a  matrix  by the Lords of Destiny--the Recording Angels and  their  agents.
This  matrix is placed in the womb of the mother,  where the  physical  par-
ticles are embedded in it so that they gradually form the body of the child,
which  is  then  born.  At  that  time the child has no soul body.  Whatever


[PAGE 14]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

there may be of the two higher ethers is not assimilated until later in life
and is built upon by deeds that are good and true.   When the soul body  has
reached a certain density,  it is possible for the person to function in  it
as an Invisible Helper,  and during his soul lights the desire body mold it-
self  readily  into this prepared matrix.  When he returns to  the  physical
body,  the effort of will whereby he enters it automatically  dissolves  the
intimate  connection  between the desire body and the soul body.   Later  on
when  the  life in the physical world has been finished and  the  two  lower
ethers discarded with the dense body, the luminous soul body or "golden wed-
ding garment"  still remains with the higher vehicles,  and into this matrix
the desire body is molded at its birth into the Invisible World.   So as the
body  of  the child was made in conformity to the matrix of  the  two  lower
ethers before coming to physical birth, similarly the birth into the  Invis-
ible World which follows death in the physical region is attended by an  im-
pregnation with desire stuff of the matrix formed of the two higher  ethers,
to form the vehicle that will be used in that world.

   But  the so-called dead are not the only ones who have the power thus  to
mold desire stuff into any shape they please.   This power is shared by  all
the other denizens of the Desire World even down to the elementals, and they
very  often  use this faculty of transformation to frighten or  mislead  the
newcomer,  as  many a neophyte has found out to his  consternation  when  he
first entered that realm.  For these  little  imps  are quick to know when a


[PAGE 15]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

person is a stranger and not conversant with the nature of things there, and
they  seem to take a special delight in annoying newcomers  by  transforming
themselves into the most grotesque and terrifying monsters.   Then they  may
feign atrocious attacks upon him, and its seems to give them the keenest de-
light  if they are able to chase him into a corner and make him cringe  with
feat  while they stand gnashing their teeth as if ready to devour him.   But
the  moment  the neophyte learns that in reality there is nothing  that  can
hurt him,  that in his finer vehicles he is immune from all danger of  being
torn to pieces or devoured, and that a quiet laugh at the harmless creatures
and  a stern command to take themselves off is all that is needed  to  cause
them to turn their attention elsewhere,  they soon learn to leave him alone.
Thus he learns to force them to do his will, for in that world all creatures
which have not been individualized are compelled to do the bidding of higher
intelligences, and man is among the latter.

   Thus  a man may take an elemental and form it into any shape  he  desires
and  use it to do his bidding.   The beings thus created with his  life  and
will  power and given a certain mission to do will faithfully obey  his  or-
ders,  and according to the intensity which he puts into that work will  the
thing  last  for a longer or shorter time.   In this manner  many  so-called
spooks have been created and given a mission lasting for centuries after the
person who originally started the spell  had  gone  into  the  higher Heaven


[PAGE 16]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

World.   That  is  probably the origin of the "white  lady"  who  warns  the
Hohenzollerns  of impending death.   She and kindred apparitions which  have
given  rise to so much speculation have been created by the superlative  in-
tensity of desire of a human being launched into the Desire World under par-
ticularly painful or distressing circumstances,  which wrought the  required
magic spell unconsciously to the person himself.


[PAGE 16]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                            A SHORT CUT TO HEAVEN

                               QUESTION NO. 3.

   SOME  WRITERS SEEM TO TEACH THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO GO STRAIGHT  FROM  THE
PHYSICAL WORLD TO THE HIGHER SPIRITUAL WORLD WITHOUT HAVING TO PASS  THROUGH
THE LOWER REGIONS OF THE DESIRE WORLD,  THUS ESCAPING ALL THE NOISOME SIGHTS
WHICH ARE PECULIAR TO THAT REGION.  YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND,  ALWAYS SPEAK AS
IF  IT WERE NECESSARY TO PASS THROUGH EVERY REALM OF NATURE  IN  SUCCESSION.
WHY THIS DISCREPANCY?

   ANSWER:   We  are well aware that some people make  statements  as  above
relative to the transition from the physical to the higher spiritual  realms
by way of what they learnedly call the "atomic subplanes."  For  guidance as


[PAGE 17]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

to who is right,  we refer you to the Law of Analogy,  "As above so  below,"
which is the master key to all mysteries,  spiritual or physical,  for  this
law is one in whatever realm of Nature we investigate.   You know it is  im-
possible for a diver to get to the bottom of the sea without starting at the
surface  and descending through the intervening water.   It is also  evident
that  it is impossible for an aeroplane to ascend above the  clouds  without
first passing through the intervening space of air between the earth and the
clouds.  Similarly the Ego after death gradually ascends through the various
spiritual  realms  to  the  Third Heaven,  and at the  time  of  rebirth  it
gradually descends through the Region of Concrete Thought, the Desire World,
and the Ether to the physical plane.  These are facts known to many who have
investigated,  and are beyond dispute or argument to the occult scientist as
much as it is beyond argument to the material scientist that the earth moves
on its axis; anyone who contends otherwise is simply mistaken.

   Nor does the writer say this solely upon the basis of his own experience,
for  he  is acquainted with hundreds of others who possess  the  ability  to
function outside the body in the various spiritual realms.  He has never ex-
pressly  discussed this phase of superphysical experience with any of  them,
but  their  repeated references to things which happened to  different  ones
when passing through the lower realms of the Desire World and the Ether make


[PAGE 18]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

him  feel  certain that none of his acquaintances have ever mounted  to  the
higher  parts of the Desire World or the Region of Concrete Thought  without
first  passing through the Ether and the lower Desire World  strata,  namely
the Purgatorial Region.

   Furthermore,  even if there were such a short cut as that mentioned  from
the physical world to the highest spiritual realms, do you think that one of
God's helpers would ever make use of it for the sake of escaping the noisome
sights and the suffering to be found in Purgatory?  Most assuredly not!  The
Christ never turned in disgust from a leper or anyone else in sorrow and af-
fliction.   He always sought them out in order that He might heal  and  help
them.   What  work to you think an Invisible Helper could do  in  the  First
Heaven and the Region of Concrete Thought, where there is no sorrow, suffer-
ing,  or misery, but where all is happiness and joy?  There he is not needed
by any means.  His work lies in the very regions which these writers profess
to be able to skip, and if there were such a short cut as mentioned, no true
Invisible Helper would ever want to make use of it;  but as a matter of fact
there is no such byway to heaven.


[PAGE 19]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                             EARTH-BOUND SPIRITS

                               QUESTION NO. 4.


   WHY  DO  YOU SAY THAT SOME PERSON AFTER THEY HAVE PASSED INTO  THE  OTHER
LIFE ARE EARTH-BOUND?  IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO HERE BY WHICH SUCH A CON-
DITION CAN BE AVOIDED HEREAFTER?

   ANSWER:  Yes, indeed!  People who are earth-bound have their treasures on
earth instead of in heaven.   They have all left something behind.   It  may
not always be money;  they may have other ties on earth,  somebody that they
think they own--their wife,  their husband,  their children.   Their idea is
that because I love you,  you must do just as I want you to do.   They don't
regard  the person they love as having any rights at all.  Later  when  they
pass out,  that relation continues, and they endeavor to impress their loved
ones,  to  keep close to them and be in their company as much as  they  can.
People who have houses and lands and such things and are very much  attached
to them are the worst off.   We see such a person sometimes watching a  safe
where  he has a lot of stock and bonds.   Then the heirs will come and  take
the bonds out and laugh at the old fool for hoarding his money.   Or it  may
be people who have lived for society.  They have jewels, dresses,  and other
things.  They still love them and feel they cannot part with them, therefore


[PAGE 20]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

they are bound to earth as long as they have that feeling.

   The best way is to give everything away.  Of course we have to watch that
we do not put ourselves in a position where people that we give such  things
to  would put us out in the street and cause us to be entirely destitute  in
old age.  But if we use judgment, when we see that we have lived our life to
the end of usefulness,  we may say:  here are things that I have no more use
for,  and I know I am getting towards the end; where can I do most good with
them,  who will enjoy them most, or whom can I help to establish in business
so  he can do something for himself?   Or we may find other similar ways  of
disposing of things.   Also with regard to the affections:   we should  hold
ourselves  in  check  so  that we do not love  anybody  with  an  inordinate
love--such  as that which makes idols of others and puts them before  every-
thing else.   If we thus get ourselves free from all earthly ties so we  are
ready  to  go,  then we are like the ripe kernel falling out of the  ear  of
grain.  If we are free from all earthly ties whether financial, personal, or
whatever they may be, we cannot be kept earth-bound.   If,  however,  people
have committed crimes,  they are sometimes unavoidably earth-bound by  asso-
ciation with the places where they were committed and by trying to undo  the
wrong that was done.


[PAGE 21]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                         REUNION OF LOVERS IN HEAVEN

                               QUESTION NO. 5.

   IF  THERE IS A STRONG ATTRACTION BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE WHICH CANNOT REACH  A
LEGITIMATE CONSUMMATION IN MARRIAGE BECAUSE OF PREVIOUS TIES AND ONE OF THEM
PASSES OUT OF HIS LIFE WITH THAT LONGING IN MIND,  WILL THEY BE REUNITED  IN
HEAVEN, AND WILL THEY MEET AND MATE IN A FUTURE EARTH LIFE?

   ANSWER:   YES, in all probability the attraction they feel for each other
and which cannot find expression now will in many such cases bring them  to-
gether even before the next life; for though there is no marriage in Heaven,
those  who  love each other and are therefore in a sense necessary  to  each
other's  happiness,  are united in a bond of closest friendship  during  the
stay in the First Heaven if they pass out at or near the same time.   But if
one  remains  in the body for a number of years after the other  has  passed
over, the one who is in the Heaven World will with his or her loving thought
create  an  image of the other and endow it with life for we  must  remember
that  the  Desire World is so constituted that we are able  to  give  bodily
shape  to  whatever we think of.   Thus,  although this image will  only  be
ensouled by his thought and the thoughts of the other person still living in
the physical region, it embodies all the conditions  that  are  necessary to


[PAGE 22]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

fill the cup of happiness of this inhabitant of the Heaven World.

   Similarly, when the second person passes on, if the first person has pro-
gressed into the Second Heaven,  his or her shell,  so-called (the  disinte-
grating desire body in which he or she lived),  will answer the purpose  and
seem perfectly real to the second lover until his or her life in this  realm
is ended.  Then when they both pass into the Second and Third Heavens,  for-
getfulness  of the past comes over them,  and they may part for one or  more
lives without loss.  But some time, somewhere, they will meet again, and the
dynamic  force which they have generated in the past by their yearnings  for
each other will unvaryingly draw them together so that their love may  reach
its legitimate consummation.

   This  applies not only to lovers in the generally accepted sense  of  the
word,  but the love existing between brothers and sisters, parents and chil-
dren, or friends who are not related by blood will also work itself out in a
similar manner.   Our life in the First Heaven is always blessed and  filled
by the presence of those we love.   If they are not in the spirit world  and
thus actually present, their images will be; and it must not be thought that
these are pure illusion,  for they are ensouled by the love and the  friend-
ship sent out by the absent ones toward the person of whose heaven life they
are a part.


[PAGE 23]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                        STUDY IN THE INVISIBLE WORLD

                               QUESTION NO. 6.

   ON PAGE 118,  LAST  PARAGRAPH,  OF  THE  COSMO IT IS STATED REGARDING THE
FIRST HEAVEN:   "THE STUDENT AND THE PHILOSOPHER HAVE INSTANT ACCESS TO  ALL
THE  LIBRARIES OF THE WORLD."   IS THE KNOWLEDGE RETAINED WHICH IS  OBTAINED
THERE?  IS IT HELD BY THE MIND AND BROUGHT TO EARTH AT THE NEXT BIRTH?   CAN
STUDY BE CONTINUED THERE AND WE REAP THE REWARD OF THAT STUDY IN THE NEXT OR
SOME FOLLOWING EARTH LIFE?

   ANSWER:  We have great opportunities if we have a mind to take them after
we  pass over into the Invisible World.   But the great majority  of  people
seem to live almost as they lived here.  They do not need to eat,  but  they
do eat,  as the spiritualists say;  and they do have houses over there,  and
they so seem to live in other respects exactly as they lived here, just hav-
ing as good and easy a time as they possibly can and enjoying themselves  in
that way.   That class of people are not getting any great good out of their
post-mortem existence.

   But  those who are studious and try to study humanity there have a  great
field.  They can do a wonderful lot of work, and its helps them.  It doesn't
seem to bring soul growth in the same sense that it does here;  but just the
same it promotes their standing, gives them  greater spirituality, and helps


[PAGE 24]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

them  in  their evolution to a wonderful extent.   Thus the essence  of  the
knowledge gained there is retained and brought to earth at the next birth.

                               ---------------

                        QUIET IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH

                               QUESTION NO. 7.

   IT IS SAID THAT THE BODY SHOULD NOT BE CREMATED WITHIN THREE AND ONE-HALF
DAYS AFTER DEATH.   IS THERE A DETRIMENTAL EFFECT EXPERIENCED FROM A  BURIAL
AT ANY TIME WITHIN THREE AND ONE-HALF DAYS?

   ANSWER:   No,  not from the burial of the body in itself if it is not mo-
lested in any other way.   But of course a burial cannot usually take  place
without  more or less commotion and the body being more or  less  disturbed;
therefore  it is best to wait until after the period mentioned  has  passed.
Of  course any incision in the body such as used for the purpose of  embalm-
ing, or anything like that, is felt by the Spirit.  Just as the spirit dimly
feels  the cutting when a doctor performs an operation upon a  person  under
ether, so a post-mortem operation causes enough sensation to make the Spirit
feel  uncomfortable;  therefore we should avoid these things if we  possibly
can.   There   should   be  as  much  quiet  as  possible  around  the  body


[PAGE 25]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

during  these three and one-half days,  as whatever is done to  disturb  its
rest and peace is really detrimental to the Ego.

                               ---------------

                             EFFECT OF EMBALMING

                               QUESTION NO. 8.

   IN EMBALMING THE BLOOD IS DRAWN FROM THE BODY WHILE IT IS STILL WARM  AND
A FLUID FORCED INTO THE ARTERIES.  WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF THIS OPERATION?

   ANSWER:   The Spirit feels pain from embalming and consequently  is  dis-
turbed  in that most important of all things,  the meditation over the  pan-
orama of life.   We should realize that at the time of death the harvest  is
beginning;  we have been sowing all through life,  and when death comes  the
reaping begins.   The first and most important fruitage comes from the study
of  the panorama of life as it unrolls in reverse order,  showing first  the
events of the past life and then the causes that produced them.  If the body
is  disturbed at that time by the lamentations of relatives or by moving  it
out  to  be buried,  then the Spirit is disturbed in the same  degree.   And
naturally  a  post-mortem  examination  or  embalming  will  have  far  more


[PAGE 26]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

detrimental effects.  Therefore it is wrong to do either.

                               ---------------

                    HELPING FRIENDS WHO ARE IN PURGATORY

                               QUESTION NO. 9.

   MY  ONLY BROTHER DIED LAST NOVEMBER AND MUST NOW FIND HIMSELF IN  ONE  OF
THE LOWEST REGIONS OF THE DESIRE WORLD.  WOULD YOU ADVISE ME TO LET HIM KNOW
THAT MY A SIMPLE EFFORT OF THE WILL HE CAN PREVENT THE MATTER OF THE  DESIRE
BODY  FROM FORMING ITSELF INTO CONCENTRIC LAYERS,  AS IT WERE,  THE  COARSER
MATTER ON THE OUTSIDE AND THE FINER WITHIN?  I MEAN TO SAY THAT BY AN EFFORT
OF  WILL HE COULD MAKE THE MATTER OF THE SEVEN REGIONS OF THE  DESIRE  WORLD
WHICH FORM HIS DESIRE BODY,  COME TO THE SURFACE OF THAT BODY,  AND BY  THIS
MEANS  HE WOULD BE ABLE TO CONTACT AT ONCE ALL THE SEVEN REGIONS OF THE  DE-
SIRE WORLD INSTEAD OF ONLY THE LOWER REGIONS.  THERE IS, I BELIEVE, NO SERI-
OUS OBJECTION TO THIS USE OF WILL POWER.

   ANSWER:  This question refers to the fact that when death has taken place
and man finds himself in the Desire World,  the  MAGNETIC POWERS OF THE SEED


[PAGE 27]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ATOM ARE SPENT,  the archetype is dissolving,  and therefore the centrifugal
force  of Repulsion forces the desire stuff of the desire body  outward  to-
wards  its periphery.   The matter belonging to the lower regions is  thrown
off  first by the process of purgation, which cleanses the man from all  the
evil acts of his past life.  This is the result of the same natural law that
in  the physical world causes a sun to throw off matter which  then  becomes
planets.   To interfere with this law would be disastrous to any human being
even supposing it were possible,  which it is not.   So it is useless to at-
tempt to help your brother in that manner.

   It  is  different with the Initiate who goes to the Desire  World  during
life.   Then the seed atom of the desire body forms a natural center of  at-
traction,  or gravitation,  which holds the desire stuff in that vehicle  to
the  accustomed lines.   Also it is different with anyone who  performs  the
scientific  exercises given in the Mystery Schools.   Such a person is  con-
stantly purging his desire body of the coarser matter so that at death he is
not  affected  to the same degree by the centrifugal force of  Repulsion  as
those who have not had this training.

   But there is another way in which we may help someone near and dear to us
provided  we have his cooperation.   To make this clear it is  necessary  to
mention first that the coarser the desire stuff in the desire body, the more
tenacious is its hold upon a man; therefore expurgation by the force of  Re-
pulsion  causes  great  pain,  and  that  is what we feel in the purgatorial


[PAGE 28]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

experience.   If  we were perfectly willing to let go  and  acknowledge  our
faults when the pictures of them appear in the life panorama instead of try-
ing  to  make excuses for ourselves or being stirred anew by the  anger  and
hate  of the past,  then it would involved much less pain to eradicate  them
from our desire body.  If this fact can be impressed on one whom we are anx-
ious to help,  if we can get him into the state of mind where he is  willing
to  acknowledge his wrongs and mistakes from the very bottom of  his  heart,
then the process of purgation will be both shorter and less painful,  and he
will rise to the higher regions where the force of attraction hold sway in a
much shorter time than otherwise.

   The  same result can be accomplished by prayer;  also by  kind  thoughts,
thoughts  of upliftment and helpfulness,  for these have the same effect  on
those who are out of the body as kind words and helpful acts have on  people
who live in this world.


[PAGE 29]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                    DISFIGUREMENT IN THE INVISIBLE WORLD

                              QUESTION NO. 10.

   AT PRESENT SO MANY DEPLORABLE CASUALTIES ARE OCCURRING DAILY AND  HOURLY,
AND  PEOPLE ARE BEING HURLED INTO THE NEXT WORLD IN A HIDEOUSLY  MAIMED  AND
DISFIGURED CONDITION.   DO THOSE WHO PASS INTO THAT WORLD UNDER THE ORDINARY
PEACEFUL DEATHBED CONDITIONS HAVE TO FACE THESE HORRIBLE SIGHTS ON THE OTHER
SIDE?

   ANSWER:   Conditions there are not quite so bad now as they were  in  the
beginning  of  the war (World War I).  At that time the Spirits  who  passed
over thought of themselves as being maimed, and they had no way of  correct-
ing  that impression;  therefore they carried about with them the wounds  on
the various parts of their bodies and appeared minus limbs, etc.  Often they
suffered very acutely,  believing themselves to be still afflicted with  the
physical pain.   But the Invisible Helpers have not been idle;  a system  of
education has been inaugurated and systematized so that nearly everybody  is
now aware of the fact that physical disabilities are not necessarily  perma-
nent on the other side.   They have learned that a hand which has been  shot
off may be replaced in the desire body by the mere thought of having a  hand
and  its being complete.   This word has been passed from one to another  so
that  now everyone who goes to the other side with a gunshot wound or  minus
arms or legs or even a head, is at once  instructed  in the fact that desire


[PAGE 30]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

stuff is readily molded by thought and will, and as a result almost everyone
there is perfect in body.

   In fact,  those who now pass from this life halt, lame, hunchbacked or in
any other way physically disfigured have taken a leaf out of this book,  and
whereas in years before the war one would find as many hunchbacked and  halt
people  there as in the physical world,  one will now find  nearly  everyone
with a perfect body.   It is amusing,  to say the least,  to see people  who
were vain in the earth life,  now molding their faces and bodies in  harmony
with their conceptions of beauty by a mere effort of will.   This makes it a
little more difficult than it used to be to find people there, for those who
were  tall  and  skinny but who had a keen desire to  be  more  fleshy  have
changed their appearance in accordance with their wish, and conversely those
who were fleshy and suffered from a superabundance of avoirdupois have often
made themselves slender as sylphs.   Thus the knowledge which before the war
was largely confined to the occultist has now become general property in the
other world, and has caused the inhabitants there to change their shapes in-
sofar as this has not been prevented by the purgatorial experience.

   The great majority of recent arrivals have nothing of the above nature to
divert their attention in the Desire World, and are intently watching devel-
opments here on the material plane.   Having been taken out of the  physical
world in the very prime of manhood, their hole life before them so to speak,


[PAGE 31]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

they are still very much attached to physical conditions,  and will probably
be  earth-bound  for a considerable number of years during which  time  they
will  form an unseen but very potent factor in shaping the world's  destiny.
They  upon their side will endeavor by all possible means to establish  com-
munication  with this world,  and their combined efforts will be felt  as  a
powerful force by an increasing number of sensitive people.

   We may therefore expect to see spiritualism flourish as it never did  be-
fore in the world's history.   This involves the development of  mediumship,
which is a very dangerous phase of psychic unfoldment.  Neptune,  the planet
of  psychism,  is  now  entering  Leo,  the  sign  of  the  heart,  and  the
heartstrings of love and desire for intercommunication will pull the  people
in the two worlds together.   This will establish the spiritual verities be-
yond cavil.  But we should prepare ourselves to go there consciously and not
allow them to come back here through mediumship, much less draw them on, for
that is retrogression for them.   Instead, if we cultivate our latent  sixth
sense we shall be able to see them, and to speak with those who have  passed
over just as well as we did when they were with us in the flesh.


[PAGE 32]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                    EXPERIENCES OF AN EARTH-BOUND SUICIDE

                              QUESTION NO. 11.

                 (IN A LETTER TO MAX HEINDEL FROM PUERTO RICO)

   YOU REMEMBER OUTRAM COURT, A ONE-TIME STUDENT OF YOURS WHO COMMITTED SUI-
CIDE?   WELL,  I HAVE TAKEN MY MIND ENTIRELY OFF HIM LATELY,  BECAUSE I SUP-
POSED  BY THIS TIME HE WAS SAFE IN HIS OWN PLACE.   BUT ONE OF MY PEONS  HAS
JUST TOLD ME HE ATTENDED A SPIRITUALIST MEETING A FEW NIGHTS AGO AND  OUTRAM
COURT  CAME.   TO PROVE HIS IDENTITY HE INSISTED UPON SPEAKING  ENGLISH  AL-
THOUGH  HE SPOKE SPANISH JUST AS WELL, AND AS NONE OF THOSE  PRESENT  UNDER-
STOOD  ENGLISH  THERE WAS A DELAY UNTIL THEY FOUND A SPIRIT  WHO  UNDERSTOOD
BOTH LANGUAGES.   OUTRAM SAID HE WAS STILL LIVING AT MY NEIGHBOR'S WHERE  HE
KILLED HIMSELF;  THAT HE WAS SUFFERING TORTURE FROM HUNGER,  AND WANTED THEM
TO GIVE HIM FOOD.  LATER IN THE INTERVIEW HE CHANGED TO SPANISH.

   NOW,  I WONDER WHAT I CAN DO.  THE WORST OF IT IS I CANNOT BRING BACK THE
MEMORY OF ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN MY SLEEP.   AN I DO SO WANT TO  REMEMBER.
WHAT CAN I DO?

   ANSWER:   This question opens up the vast subject of abnormal  transition
into the beyond, both by accident and design, together with the feelings ex-
perienced by people who have  thus  passed  the  gate  of  death,  and their


[PAGE 33]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

communications  through  mediums;  also the curious fact that  many  of  the
people we call dead are unaware that they have lost their physical body.

   To  elucidate it is necessary first to state a few of the  salient  facts
concerning man and the world in which we live.  Everyday observation as well
as scientific researches prove that matter exists and moves in states  which
we cannot see.  Water is evaporated by the sun's heat and again condensed as
rain;  ether is as necessary to transmit light and electricity as air is  to
the transmission of sound.   The invisible wind, which is air in motion,  is
as surely a cosmic force as the electricity moving in the still finer  realm
of ether.   In short,  we are surrounded by an invisible world of force  and
matter,  as real as, or more so than, the world we know through our physical
senses.

   And  as we eat the substances of this gross,  dens world to  sustain  our
visible  bodies,  we assimilate a certain amount of matter belonging to  the
invisible ethereal worlds,  which forms a garment for the Spirit when it has
dropped  the  mortal coil.   "The wind bloweth where it  listeth,  and  thou
hearest  the sound thereof,  but knoweth now whence it cometh or whither  it
goeth; so is everyone who is born of the spirit.

   Under normal conditions the exit of the Spirit from its outgrown body  is
like the falling of the seed from the ripe fruit.   But when the Spirit sev-
ers  the  tie  before  the  appointed  harvest  time  of  death,  the unripe


[PAGE 34]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

spiritual vehicle cannot ascend to the higher realms; it hovers close to its
earthly haunts,  as hungry for more physical sustenance as the kernel  forc-
ibly extracted from the unripe fruit.   In the nature of things this  cannot
be  gratified,  and therefore intense unsatisfied hunger causes the  suicide
the most excruciating torture.  He sometimes obtains a little temporary sur-
cease by inhaling the fumes of highly flavored dishes.

   Furthermore,  as the flesh clings to the kernel when it is forcibly  torn
from  unripe fruit,  so also some of the lower ethers and even gases of  the
slain body cling to the higher vehicles of the suicide, with the result that
he is very nearly material, and is susceptible to gross, sensual suggestions
in a manner and to a measure not felt by humanity in the body.   If his  na-
ture is such that he would entertain and take pleasure in such things he may
here wallow in the deepest mire of the darkest hell,  with very serious det-
riment to his spiritual welfare.  But if he dislikes the coarse and sensual,
the  atmosphere  of bestiality in which the suicide finds himself  will  jar
upon his sensibilities in proportion to his refinement;  as several have ex-
pressed it to the writer,  the orthodox hell with its devil would be a  mild
form of amusement by comparison.   Some describe the pain which we have com-
pared   to unsatisfied hunger as a gnawing,  throbbing toothache,  with  the
difference that the pain is felt all over the body instead of being confined
to the dental region.


[PAGE 35]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   The  experience of Outram Court bears out the foregoing teachings of  the
Rosicrucians.   He is still earth-bound in the same house where he  formerly
lived,  and his desire body evidently remains very dense,  so dense that  at
times he cannot realize that he has passed over because he sees clearly  the
physical  world and the people in it; he probably sits at their  tables  and
endeavors to partake of their food, or at least to feed upon the odor.   Nor
is  it strange that he frequents the spiritualistic meetings of  the  peons,
for these people are at a low stage of development, very sensual,  and prac-
tice without being aware of it a good deal of black magic under the guise of
spirit communication.

   There are two ways of helping such an Ego:   one is by direct  communica-
tion  with him at night,  by reasoning with him and showing him that  he  is
making a rod which will whip him sorely in the future;  that he ought to try
to bear the pain patiently till the archetype collapses at the time when  he
would  have died normally.   This may or may not be successful,  but  it  is
worth a trial.   If the writer of the letter were conscious of what  happens
to him at night he could go and talk the matter over with Outram Court  just
as he would if both were in the physical body;  but still he is not shut off
from helping even if lacking this consciousness.  It is the will that deter-
mines our actions there as here, and if he holds his thought before going to
sleep intently on the work he wishes to do, preparing himself with arguments


[PAGE 36]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY


and centering his whole being on helping Outram Court, this last thought be-
fore  going to sleep will also be the first waking thought on  entering  the
invisible  world  where the sleeping and the dead meet and  converse.   This
thought then becomes a sort of "fixed idea"  which he will follow during the
night  to the exclusion of all other thoughts and desires,  and the  results
are bound to be beneficial.

   The  other  method,  for those who are not trained in  concentration,  is
prayer.   This is a good method of helping such a case as the  present  one,
for the attitude of prayer often acts as a guide to the person to be helped,
and  brings about a change in his mental state which furthers  him  spiritu-
ally.   The  thought forms of prayer then take the place  of  the  Invisible
Helper;  but they are more easily put aside and therefore not so  efficient,
nor can they meet an argument.

   We  always advise a combination of these two methods for  the  untrained.
Pray for those you want to help, whether they are in the body or out (living
or dead).   Think out all you would like to say to them just before going to
sleep.   When you meet in "Dreamland," if you are not yet conscious and can-
not  either plead or argue,  your feelings in the matter will make some  im-
pression at least, and if kept up for some time the effect will certainly be
noticebale.

   Our  friend says in his letter that the mother of Outram Court  does  not
know she is dead.   No one who has lost the dense body thinks of himself  as
"dead"; as a matter of fact the so-called  "dead"  feel themselves much more


[PAGE 37]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

alive  than we do.   When they pass out normally they know neither  sickness
nor pain, and they cannot therefore be expected to take our view,  who think
of the physical body as the man,  when it is only a garment we wear and wear
out.   Their consciousness is focussed entirely in their  spiritual  bodies,
with  nothing to remind them of the discarded dense vesture.   On the  other
hand,  the suicide feels every moment the sensation of hunger occasioned  by
the attempt of the archetypal body to draw physical material to itself,  and
his feeling that he is not dead springs therefore from a very different root
than  the similar idea of the general run of people who now live in the  in-
visible world.

                               ---------------

                       OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE DEAD

                              QUESTION NO. 12.

   WILL  YOU PLEASE TELL ME JUST HOW WE MAY BEST HELP THOSE WHO HAVE  PASSED
ON?

   ANSWER:  We have often expressed our appreciation of the SCIENCE OF BIRTH
with its efficient methods of helping both the mother and the child when the


[PAGE 38]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

latter  is entering our earth-life,  but we have also heartily deplored  the
lack  of  a SCIENCE OF DEATH which would teach people how to  help  intelli-
gently the Ego that is passing from earth-life into the unseen realms of na-
ture.  At such times we usually stand helplessly by, and often do in our ig-
norance  the very things which are detrimental to the comfort of the  Spirit
then  in  transition.   If people could only know how their moans  and  hys-
terical outbursts affect their dear departing ones,  unselfish consideration
would probably change their attitude and quiet their manner.

   So  far as the body is concerned it is not really dead until about  three
and one-half days after the Spirit has passed out of it, for the silver cord
still  connects it with the higher vehicles.   During this time anything  in
the nature of a post-mortem examination, embalming,  or cremation is felt by
the  Spirit almost a keenly as if still within the body.   These  are  facts
well known to all students of the Rosicrucian Philosophy, but they have per-
haps  not received the emphasis they deserve.   We should remember that  our
attitude after that time continues to affect the Spirit,  for our friends do
not usually leave their accustomed places right away.   Many stay in or near
the  home for a number of months after they have left the body and can  feel
conditions  there  even more keenly than when in earth-life.   If  we  sigh,
mourn, and moan for them we transfer to them the  gloom  we  ourselves carry


[PAGE 39]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

about  with us or else we bind them to the home because of their efforts  to
cheer us.

   In  either  case we are a hindrance and a stumbling block in the  way  of
their  spiritual progress,  and while this may be forgiven in those who  are
ignorant of the facts concerning life and death, people who have studied the
Rosicrucian  Philosophy or kindred teachings are incurring a very grave  re-
sponsibility  when they indulge in such practices.   We are well aware  that
custom used to demand the wearing of mourning and that people were not  con-
sidered respsectable if they did not put on a sable garb as a token of their
sorrow.   But fortunately times are changing and a more enlightened view  is
being taken of the matter.  The transition to the other world is quite seri-
ous  enough  in  itself,  involving as it does a process  of  adjustment  to
strange conditions all around, and the passing Spirit is further hampered by
the  sorrow and anguish of the dear ones whom it continues to see about  it-
self.   When it finds them surrounded by a cloud of black gloom,  clothed in
garments of the same color and nursing their sorrow for months or years, the
effect cannot be anything but depressing.

   How  much  better  then  the  attitude to  those  who  have  learned  the
Rosicrucian Teachings and have taken them to heart.   Their attitude when  a
dear one makes the transition is cheerful,  hopeful,  and encouraging.   The
selfish grief at the loss is controlled in order that the passing Spirit may
receive all the encouragement possible.  Usually the survivors in the family


[PAGE 40]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

dress  in  white  at  the funeral and a  cheerful,  genial  spirit  prevails
throughout.   The thought of the survivors is not, "What shall I do now that
I  have  lost him (or her)?   All the world seems empty for  me."   but  the
thought is,  "I hope he (or she) may find himself (or herself) to rights un-
der the new conditions as quickly as possible and that he (or she) will  not
grieve at the thought of leaving us behind."  Thus by the good-will,  intel-
ligence, unselfishness, and love of the remaining friends the passing Spirit
is  enabled  to enter the new conditions under much more  favorable  circum-
stances, and students of the Rosicrucian Philosophy cannot do better than to
spread this teaching as widely as possible.   According to the Bible the re-
deemed  of the Lord will finally vanquish the last enemy,  DEATH,  and  they
will then exclaim "O Death, where is thy sting?  O Grave,  where is thy vic-
tory?"   For  those who have evolved spiritual sight there is of  course  no
death,  but even those who have studied the Rosicrucian Teachings may  in  a
measure be said to have attained this great victory.



[PAGE 41]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                        POST-MORTEM STATE OF A MISER

                              QUESTION NO. 13.

   THE  COSMO STATES THAT THE DEAD MISER IN THE LOWER DESIRE WORLD  CAN  SEE
HIS  GOLD AND HIS HEIRS SQUANDERING IT,  WHEN HE HAS NO SENSE ORGANS OR  ANY
MATERIAL COARSE ENOUGH IN VIBRATION TO BE IN HARMONY WITH THE DENSE PHYSICAL
WORLD.   WE CANNOT SEE THE DESIRE WORLD UNTIL WE EVOLVE THE CENTERS  OF  THE
DESIRE  BODY;  HOW THEN CAN THOSE IN THE DESIRE WORLD SEE US WHEN THEY  HAVE
DISCARDED THE PHYSICAL SENSE ORGANS?

   ANSWER:   You understand,  of course, that the Desire World,  the Ethers,
and the Physical World interpenetrate one another so that the miser is right
here  among us just the same as he was when he had a physical body to  wear.
It  is not generally understood,  however, that the densest desire stuff  of
which the lower regions of the Desire World are composed,  and the  Chemical
Ether which is the lowest of the four ethers,  and even the physical  gases,
are exceedingly closely knit and form the outside layer of all Spirits which
have just been released from the physical body.   They are therefore  living
in  the  lower  region  of the Desire World in such  close  touch  with  the
physical that it is amazing to the writer that people cannot see them  going
about among us.  They are like the man who has left a room on a bright sunny
day:  the sunshine blinds him, but he can see clearly things inside the room


[PAGE 42]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

when he turns towards it.

   Thus  the miser and all others who have just left the physical  body  see
the  people in this world much more clearly than they see the things of  the
Desire  World where they are;  for as the man who goes out in  the  sunshine
must  first  accustom himself to see things by adjusting the  focus  of  his
eyes,  so  also the Spirits which have just entered the Desire  World  after
death,  require a little time for this readjustment.   And the densest mate-
rial  in their being,  which is thrown out toward the periphery by the  cen-
trifugal force of Repulsion, keeps them earthbound for a longer or a shorter
time until they have shed this coarsest material and are able to contact the
finer  vibrations  of the higher regions.  For that reason  the  miser,  the
drunkard, the sensualist, and similar people whose desires are naturally low
and vicious,  remain in these nether regions, which may well be called hell,
for  a much longer time than people with high ideals and  spiritual  aspira-
tions who have endeavored during life to eradicate their vices and to subdue
their lower nature.  Their desire bodies contain comparatively little coarse
material  and  that is soon worn away, leaving them free to soar  to  higher
spheres.

   With  regard  to the question as to how the miser can  see  the  physical
things when he has no sense organs, we may say that there are no specialized
sense organs in the finer vehicles,  but just as we feel with the whole sur-
face  of  our  body, so the Spirits see and hear, not only with the surface,


[PAGE 43]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

but  with every single atom of their spiritual body,  inside and out.   What
they  perceive  is  not really the physical things which  we  see  with  our
physical eyes,  but every chair, desk, or others physical implement,  is in-
terpenetrated  by  both ethers and desire stuff--it is this that  they  per-
ceive, and that to them is as real and tangible as the physical forms are to
our senses.

                               ---------------

                       POST-MORTEM STATE OF A DRUNKARD

                              QUESTION NO. 14.


   IT  IS  STATED IN THE COSMO THAT THE DRUNKARD IN THE LOWER  DESIRE  WORLD
CANNOT  GRATIFY HIS DESIRES,  BUT IT IS ALSO STATED THAT THE SPIRITS IN  THE
FIRST HEAVEN WHICH IS LOCATED IN THE UPPER DESIRE WORLD,  CAN ACTUALLY  MOLD
DESIRE  STUFF  INTO REAL ENVIRONMENT ACCORDING TO THEIR DESIRES  AND  IDEAS.
WHY  CANNOT THE DRUNKARD DO SUCH IN THE LOWER DESIRE WORLD AND  CREATE  REAL
CONDITIONS OF VICE SUITABLE TO HIS TEMPERAMENT?

   ANSWER:   It  has  been  remarked by many  students  of  THE  ROSICRUCIAN
COSMO-CONCEPTION  that it always anticipates and answers the questions which


[PAGE 44]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

may  come up in the reader's mind,  and if you will turn to page  forty-two,
the last paragraph, you may there read:  "In the finest and rarest substance
of  the  three higher Regions of the Desire World the  force  of  ATTRACTION
alone holds sway, but it is also present in some degree in the denser matter
of the three lower Regions,  where it works against the force of  REPULSION,
which is dominant there.   The disintegrating force of Repulsion would  soon
destroy every form coming into these three lower regions were it not at that
it  is  thus counteracted.   In the densest or lowest region,  where  it  is
strongest,  it tears and shatters the forms built there in a way dreadful to
see.   Yet it is not a vandalistic force.  Nothing in nature is vandalistic.
All that appears so is but working towards good.   So with this force in its
work in the lowest Region of the Desire World.   The forms here are demoniac
creations, built by the coarsest passions and desires of man and beast.

   "The  tendency of every form in the Desire World is to attract to  itself
all it can of a like nature and grow thereby.   If this tendency to  attrac-
tion were to predominate in the lowest Regions, evil would grow like a weed.
There would be anarchy instead of order in the Cosmos.  This is prevented by
the preponderating power of the force of Repulsion in this Region.   When  a
coarse  desire form is being attracted to another of the same nature,  there
is a disharmony in their vibrations, whereby one has a disintegrating effect
upon the other.  Thus,  instead  of uniting and amalgamating evil with evil,


[PAGE 45]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

they  act with mutual destructiveness and in that way the evil in the  world
is  kept within reasonable bounds.   When we understand the workings of  the
twin forces in this respect,  we are in a position to understand the  occult
maxim, "A lie is murder and suicide in the Desire World."

   As a matter of fact, the drunkards in the Desire World usually attempt to
manufacture the drink for which they crave when they have once learned  that
it is possible to so mould desire stuff that it becomes whatever you want it
to be;  but they all declare unanimously that the strong drink or the  drugs
which  they  manufacture  in that manner give  no  satisfaction.   They  can
imitate the taste perfectly, but the drink thus manufactured has no power to
make  them drunk.   The nearest they can get to the satisfaction of  a  real
drunk is to insinuate their bodies into those of drunkards who are still  in
the physical world.   Therefore, they are continually haunting bar-rooms and
endeavoring  to get the frequenters of these places to take  an excess  dose
of intoxicants.

   They also say that they get considerable satisfaction from the fumes car-
ried by the breath of drunkards in the physical body and the more heavy  and
pungent the atmosphere is in the bar-rooms,  the nearer they come to finding
the satisfaction for which they are seeking.  If only the poor weaklings who
visit such places could see and understand the disgusting tactics of the in-
visible reprobates hanging about such places, surely it would be an  awaken-
ing which would probably help those  who  are  not  too  far gone to retrace


[PAGE 46]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

their steps to the path of decency and honest living.  But,  thank God (both
for the visible and invisible drunkards) it is impossible for them to create
a  den of vice in the desire stuff because the force of Repulsion  tends  to
destroy it as fast as they can bring it into existence.

                               ---------------

                           RESULTS OF SUDDEN DEATH

                              QUESTION NO. 15.

   IN  THE NOVEMBER,  1917,  ISSUE OF RAYS FROM THE ROSE CROSS THERE  WAS  A
STORY  CALLED,  "FACING  THE FIRING SQUAD," STATING HOW  A  SPY  WAS  PLACED
AGAINST A WALL AND SHOT.   IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS HE,  BEING IN FULL POSSES-
SION OF HIS CONSCIOUSNESS,  CONVERSES WITH A ROSICRUCIAN AND IN HIS  COMPANY
TRAVELS  THOUSANDS OF MILES TO VISIT HIS SISTER.   IS NOT THIS  CONTRARY  TO
WHAT IS TAUGHT IN THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY?  IT IS THERE STATED THAT AFTER
THE SEED ATOM IN THE HEART HAS BEEN REMOVED AND THE SILVER CORD RUPTURED,  A
PERIOD  OF  UNCONSCIOUSNESS  LASTING  ABOUT THREE AND ONE-HALF DAYS FOLLOWS,


[PAGE 47]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

DURING WHICH TIME THE SPIRIT REVIEWS THE PANORAMA OF ITS PAST LIFE.

   ANSWER:   Yes,  it is so stated in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION,  and
that  holds  good under all ordinary circumstances.   However,  it  is  also
stated  in  explanation of the law of infant mortality that  when  a  person
passes out under untoward circumstances,  such as a fire or a railway  acci-
dent,  or  suddenly  as by a fall from a building or a  mountain,  or  on  a
battlefield, or when the lamentations of relatives around the bedside of the
newly dead make it impossible for him to concentrate upon the life-panorama,
then the etching in the two higher ethers,  the light ether and the reflect-
ing ether, and their amalgamation with the desire body, does not take place.
Man does not then lose consciousness, and because there is no etching on the
finer  vehicles such as is normally the case,  he has no purgatorial  exist-
ence; that is to say, he does not reap what he has sown, there is no suffer-
ing in consequence of his wrong-doings and no feeling of joy and love on ac-
count of the good he has done.  The fruitage of the life has been lost.

   To offset this great disaster the Spirit on entering its next earth  life
is caused to die in childhood so far as the physical body is concerned,  but
the vital body,  the desire body, and mind,  which do not ordinarily come to
birth until the dense body is seven, fourteen, and twenty-one years old, re-
spectively, remain with the passing Spirit,  as  that  which  has  not  been


[PAGE 48]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

quickened cannot die.   Then in the First Heaven the Spirit strays from  one
to  twenty  years,  receiving such instructions and object lessons  as  will
teach  it that which it would otherwise have learned by the panorama of  its
past  life had it not been interrupted by the accident which terminated  it.
And  so it is reborn,  ready to take its proper place on the path of  evolu-
tion.

   There  is  in this consideration a great deal of food for  thought.   The
large  percentage  of  infant mortality today has its root in  the  wars  of
former ages.   The loss of life was comparatively slight, though the toll of
national wars must have been greatly increased by the deaths which  occurred
in  duels,  feuds,  and common quarrels, where deadly weapons were  used  in
those days.   Nevertheless,  the sum total of these casualties seems  insig-
nificant when compared with the awful carnage which is now going on,  and if
this  is to be corrected in the same manner,  then a future generation  will
certainly  reap  a harvest of tears on account of the epidemics  which  will
devastate the homes of their children.   But as we have pointed out at other
times, every tear shed because of the loss of some loved one is wearing away
the scales from our eyes until one day we shall see with sufficient  clarity
to  penetrate the veil that now separates us from those we  mistakenly  call
dead,  but who are really much more alive than we are.   Then shall come  to
pass the victory over death,  and we shall be able to exclaim:   "O,  Death,
where is thy sting?  O, Grave, where is thy victory?"


[PAGE 49]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                            GHOSTS OF THE LIVING

                              QUESTION NO. 16.

   I WAS IN OUR TALKING SHOP A FEW DAYS AGO WHEN OUR MOST RADICAL MEMBER WAS
URGING  THE GRANTING OF A LAPSED SCHOLARSHIP TO A POOR BOY WHO HAD  WON  ONE
WHEN LEGALLY TOO YOUNG TO RECEIVE IT, AND WHO BEING SICK AT THIS  PARTICULAR
EXAMINATION WAS BEATEN BY ANOTHER BOY.  STILL HE WAS PRONOUNCED BY THE EXAM-
INERS IN ENGLAND AS MORALLY ENTITLED TO THIS SCHOLARSHIP.

   WHILE LISTENING TO THE DEBATE SOME ONE SITTING BY MY SIDE TOUCHED ME  AND
SAID:   "LOOK, MR. MacF!"  I LOOKED IN THE DIRECTION POINTED OUT TO ME,  AND
THERE WAS ONE OF THE COLLEGE MASTERS, MR.  MAC,  STANDING BEHIND THE GOVERN-
MENT SECRETARY,  LISTENING INTENTLY TO THE DEBATE.   I TOLD THE PERSON  THAT
MR. MAC AND I WERE SCHOOLMATES AND THAT I HAD NOT SEEN HIM FOR YEARS, YET HE
DID NOT SEEM TO GROW OLD.

   AFTER THE GOVERNMENT SECRETARY HAD SPOKEN, MR. MAC WENT OUT.   I REMARKED
THAT  PERHAPS THE YOUNGSTER WAS ONE OF HIS FAVORITES,  WHICH CAUSED  HIM  TO
LEAVE HIS COLLEGE DUTIES TO COME AND HEAR THE DEBATE.

   A  FEW DAYS LATER I WENT TO SEE A FRIEND A LITTLE OUT OF TOWN AND IN  THE
COURSE  OF OUR CONVERSATION I TOLD HER OF THE DEBATE.   IMAGINE MY  SURPRISE
THEN WHEN SHE SAID THAT MR. MAC WAS DYING AT THE MOMENT WHEN I THOUGHT I HAD
SEEN HIM.   I TOLD HER THAT SHE MUST BE MISINFORMED BECAUSE SOMEONE  POINTED
HIM  OUT  TO  ME  AND I KNEW HIM TOO WELL TO BE DECEIVED.  "WELL," SHE SAID,


[PAGE 50]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

"GO INTO THE NEXT CHAMBER AND YOU WILL SEE HIM."  I WENT.   THERE ON THE BED
LAY MY SCHOOLFELLOW,  MR.  MAC, NOTHING BUT SKIN AND BONES,  WAITING FOR THE
END.   HE HAD HEARD MY CONVERSATION AND WAS INTERESTED,  BUT I DID NOT  CON-
SIDER HIM IN A FIT STATE TO GRATIFY HIS DESIRE FOR A REPETITION.   THIS  WAS
ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON.   I PROMISED TO GO NEXT DAY,  SUNDAY,  AND TELL HIM
WHAT HAPPENED, BUT WAS PREVENTED.  HE DIED ON MONDAY.

   HOW  COULD SUCH AN EMACIATED PERSON APPEAR AS BEGIN IN THE FULL VIGOR  OF
MANHOOD?  CAN ONE SEE GHOSTS OF THE LIVING?

   ANSWER:   Yes,  indeed, there are a considerable number of cases of phan-
tasms of the living.   All that is required is that the body should be in  a
very deep state of sleep or unconsciousness, such as usually occurs when the
person is near the door of death.  It may be in the act of drowning, or when
induced by the fall from a horse, automobile, or similar conditions,  or af-
ter receiving a blow on the head, or on the sickbed,  when the physical body
is  very emaciated and frail and close to dissolution,  as in the case  men-
tioned by our correspondent.   Then most of the ether constituting the vital
body  may  be  drawn  out  of the physical  vehicle,  which  is  left  in  a
trance-like condition that may last only a few minutes,  but as space is  no
barrier in the invisible worlds,  the desire of the person thus  momentarily
liberated may carry  him to the ends of the world and cause him to appear to


[PAGE 51]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

some  loved one many thousands of mile from the place where his body is  ly-
ing.

   It  is  much easier for such a Spirit to materialize than for  those  who
have left the body at death,  because with these phantasms of the living the
silver cord is still intact--connection with the seed atom in the heart  has
not been broken.   Thus it is quite possible that the youngster whose schol-
arship was under discussion was a favorite of Mr. MacF.,  as was supposed by
our correspondent,  and when he felt himself liberated by a SINKING SPELL on
that afternoon,  his desire to be well an about his work in the college took
him to his familiar haunts and made him listen to the debate concerning  the
boy's title to receive the benefit.

   With regard to the question how a man who is so emaciated could appear in
full vigor,  we may state that it is a law in the Desire World that as a man
thinketh, so is he--literally and without qualification.  Should he think of
himself as aged,  worn, and decrepit, he would shape his vehicle along those
lines  and  appear  so to all others,  but the  gentlemen  in  question  was
evidently  thinking of regaining his health and vigor so that he might  take
up his work anew.   Consequently he appeared in perfect health when seen  by
our correspondent, and the person who pointed him out.


[PAGE 52]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY




                                DIAGRAM 5A

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                              A LIFE CYCLE                                 |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Mind "Essence of Right     >->->->      Desire for Experience  |           |
|Thought" & Soul-Essence  /|\|---|\|/    and Soul-Growth draws  |   WORLD   |
|of "Right Feeling"    |>->| |EGO| |>->| the Ego To Re-Birth    |           |
|built into Spirit as /|\ /|\|---|\|/ \|/                       |    OF     |
|basis for Future      |    <-<-<-<    |                        |           |
|"Right Acts"         /|\ 3RD HEAVEN  \|/                       |  ABSTRACT |
|----------------------|---------------|------------------------------------|
|Good in past life    /|\             \|/  It Gathers Materials |   AND     |
|built into the Mind   |     2ND       |   for A New Mind       |           |
|as Right Thought;    /|\             \|/                       | CONCRETE  |
|also work on New      |    HEAVEN     |                        |           |
|Environment          /|\             \|/                       |  THOUGHT  |
|----------------------|---------------|------------------------------------|
|Essence of Pain      /|\    1ST      \|/                       |           |
|built into Soul as    |    HEAVEN     |        A New           |  DESIRE   |
|Right Feeling;       /|\             \|/                       |           |
|Suffering purges      |               |     Desire Body        |  WORLD    |
|Soul                 /|\ PURGATORY   \|/                       |           |
|----------------------|---------------|------------------------------------|
|Soul views panorama  /|\             \|/ A New Vital Body      |           |
|of past life          |   THE ETHER   |  Birth of Dense Body   |           |
|                     /|\             \|/                       |           |
|-------------DEATH>>>>|---------------|------------------------------------|
| Prime of Mentality  /|\             \|/ Birth of Vital Body-- |           |
|                      |               |       Growth           |           |
|---------------------/|\<40        7>\|/-----------------------|   THE     |
| Change of life       |               |  Birth of Desire Body--|           |
|                     /|\             \|/       Puberty         | PHYSICAL  |
|----------------------| <42        14>|------------------------|           |
| Prime of Life       /|\             \|/ Birth of Mind--       |  WORLD    |
|         2nd Growth   |  33  28       |       Majority         |           |
|---------------------/|\ \/  \/   21>\|/-----------------------|           |
|                      |-<--<--<--<--<-|                        |           |
|                             /^\                               |           |
|                              |                                |           |
|                  Beginning of Serious Life                    |           |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|-----------|






[PAGE 53]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                                 SECTION II

                           QUESTIONS DEALING WITH
                                   REBIRTH


[PAGE 54]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                            FREQUENCY OF REBIRTH

                              QUESTION NO. 17.


   DO THOSE NOW PASSING OVER COME TO REBIRTH AGAIN BEFORE THE AQUARIAN  AGE?
IF  THEY  STILL HAVE LESSONS TO LEARN TO FIT THEM TO LIVE IN THAT  AGE,  CAN
THEY COME BACK AND LEARN THEM?

   ANSWER:   That all depends.  the usual time between two births is a thou-
sand  years,  so as to give people a chance of being embodied once as a  man
and once as a woman while the sun is passing through each sign of the zodiac
by precession, which takes about 2,100 years.  This is done because the les-
son during that period are so many and so different that they cannot all  be
effectively learned in the same sexual type of body.   Experiences are  very
different from the standpoint of a man and that of a woman.  But this law is
like all other laws of nature, it is not blind.  It is under the dominion of
four great Beings called the Recording Angels, and they have to do with  all
the details of human evolution.  They see that everyone gets a chance to ob-
tain  as much experience as he or she can stand.   If it is necessary for  a
person  to remain the whole one thousand years in the invisible  worlds,  he
remains.   If not, he comes back sooner.  Some people come back within a few
hundred  years  because  they  have  evolved  to  the point where they learn


[PAGE 55]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

quickly.   People who "live the life" as Probationers,  who have assimilated
their  life experience before they leave here and are already doing  a  good
deal  of work in the invisible worlds,  will not need to spend such  a  long
time on the other side.   They have put themselves definitely on the side of
the laws of God, and are therefore given greater opportunities for evolution
by service.

                               ---------------

                       MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY TO ANIMALS

                              QUESTION NO. 18.


   WHEN A MAN LIVES A LIFE OF SORROW AND SUFFERING WE MAY ACCOUNT FOR IT  BY
THE  FACT THAT HE IS REAPING NOW WHAT HE HAS SOWN IN FORMER LIVES,  BUT  HOW
CAN WE RECONCILE THE AWFUL SUFFERING AND TORTURE OF ANIMALS WITH THE JUSTICE
OF GOD?  WHAT WILL BE THE FATE OF THOSE WHO NOW MISTREAT ANIMALS?

   ANSWER:   To view life from the standpoint of present conditions alone is
just as inconsistent a it is to look upon a man as having neither  childhood
behind him nor old age before him.  Our present life,  and many lives before
that,  have made us what we are now, and from that past is determined  in  a
large measure the direction which we shall  follow  in future lives.  At the


[PAGE 56]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

beginning  of manifestation the Spirit was FREE and like the Father save  in
one  thing,  namely that it had no self-consciousness,  and  the  pilgrimage
through matter was undertaken in order that this might be gained.   To  fur-
ther  this object the Spirit was crystallized into vehicles during the  pro-
cess of involution.   A physical,  a vital, and a desire body were gradually
drawn around it to limit it and shut it off from all other spirits.  Then by
the  gift of mind the Ego or individual was finally formed.   Imprisoned  in
the  various veils mentioned,  the Spirit can no longer contact the  outside
world  directly,  but turning its gaze inward IT SEES ITSELF AND  RECOGNIZES
ITSELF AS "I."  At the same time, however, it feels its limitations; it rec-
ognizes  the fact that it is feeding upon husks and that it is necessary  to
return  to the Father's house in order to take again its place as a  Son  of
God.

   The  resolution to return to the Father is made more intense by the  fact
that  pain and sorrow are experienced on account of the limitations  of  the
present  mode  of existence.   The cramping conditions of the  prison  house
which the Spirit feels are a goad to drive it on.  "No one cometh to the Fa-
ther but by me,"  said Christ,  and it is a fact that whenever the Christ is
born within us we become men of sorrow and acquainted with grief.   Treading
the path of probation, of purity and spiritual endeavor, draws the face with
lines of pain, and gradually the body is broken up; it becomes more ethereal
and leaves the Spirit more free.  In the measure that we subdue our passions


[PAGE 57]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

we kindle the fire of fellow feeling which will eventually burn up the dross
of  the  flesh  and leave the spiritual increment of  our  natures  free  to
function in the new heaven and the new earth where pain,  sorrow,  and death
are overcome.   This will be a foretaste of conditions in the Jupiter Period
when we shall function in our vital bodies and be free from the physical ve-
hicle with its attendant discomforts.   At present the thought of the  ordi-
nary individual has little or no power, but in that day our thoughts will be
capable of giving life to a certain lower order of spirit,  and therefore it
is  of the greatest importance that we should first become thoroughly  puri-
fied before such a terrible power is given us.

   The path of evolution is not a circle but a spiral.   We are a better hu-
manity than the angels were when they were human during the Moon Period, and
the  animals which will be human during the Jupiter Period will be a  better
humanity than we.   As the lowest globe at that time will be in the  Etheric
Region,  only a vehicle made of ether will then be used by any  being.   The
finer  forces of nature will be available to all during that time,  and  the
humanity of the Jupiter Period as well as ourselves will be ale to wield the
lightning.   Therefore it is necessary that they should know  by  experience
the nature of pain which may be inflicted by the misuse of a superior power.
To  give  them  the  necessary  compassion  they  have  been made in certain


[PAGE 58]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

respects like ourselves,  capable of feeling the pain and suffering incident
to physical existence.   Thus from the present evil there will come good  to
both man and beast.

   The fact must nevertheless be taken into consideration that there is  woe
in  store  for  him  by  whom  evil  comes.    The  lower  kingdoms  act  as
stepping-stones for the higher.  Did not the mineral exist, plant life would
be  an impossibility,  for it could not take root and obtain the  sustenance
necessary for growth.  If there were no plants, animal and man would have no
means of obtaining earth bodies.   The service rendered by the lower to  the
higher as stepping-stones can only be paid for by SERVICE.   The higher owes
the lower a debt of gratitude.  Christ recognized this,  that without pupils
there  could be no teacher,  and in gratitude for the privilege of  teaching
and  bringing into the world the wonderful Christian religion He washed  His
disciples'  feet.   In  future  aeons  the  lower  kingdoms  now  action  as
stepping-stones  and a means of growth and experience to us will  need  help
and service, which must then be given by us.  Thus the human race, which now
abuses the animals, will then have to act as their servitors, aiding them to
attain the very utmost from the school of evolution as it will be carried on
in  that day.   The animal spirits whose bodies we now torture  and  destroy
will in that day become our pupils,  and it will be our duty as their guard-
ians to help them grow and propagate the life we now deprive them of.


[PAGE 59]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

                          THE NECESSITY OF REBIRTH

                              QUESTION NO. 19.

   FOR   THOSE   BROUGHT   UP  IN  THE   TEACHINGS   OF   SPIRITUALISM   AND
SWEDENBORGIANISM IT IS EASY ENOUGH TO ACCEPT THE FACT OF LIFE HEREAFTER  AND
OF INCIDENTAL PURGATORIAL EXPERIENCE THEREIN, BUT IT IS NOT EASY FOR THEM TO
UNDERSTAND WHY IT IS NOT FEASIBLE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL TO OBTAIN ALL THE EXPE-
RIENCE NECESSARY FOR PROGRESSION IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD WITHOUT RETURNING TO
THE  PHYSICAL PLANE FOR REBIRTH IN NEW BODIES.   IF THERE IS  AN  IMPERATIVE
REASON  FOR PERIODICAL RETURNS TO THE FLESH AS ROSICRUCIANISM SEES IT,  WILL
YOU NOT STATE THIS BRIEFLY BUT EXPLICITLY?

   ANSWER:   The necessity for rebirth has two phases,  one physical and one
spiritual.  If the mineral components of our bodies did not crystallize, and
it were thus possible for us to keep them young and pliable for millions  of
years, it would not be necessary to take rebirth; we could learn the lessons
of life through the unbroken stretch of ages.   But on account of our  igno-
rance and abuse of his body it does not usually last a great deal more  than
three score and ten years,  as the tradition is,  and probably not much more
than  half that time as an average.   Hence if we lived here only one  short
life of thirty or forty years,  we would be unable to learn all the  lessons
which should be taught us in this environment, and that would be a waster of


[PAGE 60]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

energy.   We,  as human beings,  would not think of  building  an  elaborate
school  and  furnishing all the equipment for teaching the pupils  and  then
graduate  them  after  one  day's attendance;  but  that  would  be  exactly
analogous to a cosmic system which would require the attendance of pupils at
the school of life during only one life-day.   When the first school day  is
over  we  send the child home to assimilate his lesson and prepare  for  the
next day's schooling, and so on through many days and years.

   Similarly,  the  divine Hierarchies who guide our evolution  send  us  to
school on earth each life-day, and at the close thereof we are called to our
heavenly  home to rest and prepare for the schooling of the  next  life-day.
It would be an absolute impossibility for our schoolmasters to cram all  the
wisdom to be leaned in the school into the head of any pupil,  were he  ever
so precocious,  if the time were limited to one day.  But given many succes-
sive  days,  which  in the end amount to years,  they  are  able  to  impart
gradually all their knowledge to him.   Similarly in life's school:   cosmis
wisdom and cosmic love cannot be taught in a short time;  it takes age,  for
the  divine  qualities are not mushroom growths which can be  attained  over
night.   They resemble rather the sturdy oak which requires a century to de-
velop,  but which has a sturdiness and strength not even remotely approached
by the mushroom.

   Furthermore,  the constitution of and conditions in the spiritual  worlds
render  them  unsuitable  for the phases of progression which man must learn


[PAGE 61]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the  phases of progression which man must learn in the physical  world.   At
the present time mankind is developing the mind by the use of RIGHT THOUGHT,
which  has  to be turned into RIGHT ACTION, and this can best be done  in  a
realm  where conditions are firm and rigid.   When an inventor visualizes  a
machine or contrivance it may seem to work spelendidly in his mind,  but the
wheels  which revolve so nicely in his the mental world where  interpenetra-
tion  is the law are often found to rub against each and be in each  other's
way  when  the  model is made in physical material.   This  shows  that  his
thought  was  wrong,  and he is then forced to go to work  and  correct  the
mistake or abandon his project.   Thus the physical condition acts as a cor-
rective,  and by showing him his mistake makes it possible for him to  learn
gradually  to evolve the right thought and embody it in a machine that  will
work.   Similarly, a man who undertakes a business project thinks out in de-
tail how it should work, but subsequent developments often teach him that he
has  miscalculated.   Thus he also,  by his mistakes,  is  shown  where  his
thought was wrong, and is given the opportunity to correct it.

   These things cannot be learned in the spiritual world, where one goes out
of  a window or up the chimney,  just as easily as through a  door,  because
there  everything is fluidic and plastic.   Being divine,  we have  infinite
possibilities latent in us,  we are gods in the making.   Thought is a  cre-
ative power, and unless we  learn  how to use it in the right manner it will


[PAGE 62]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

prove a curse instead of a blessing, both to ourselves and the creatures who
are to be helped by us in future ages.   In that case we should be unable to
help them in the creation of suitable vehicles,  as we have been helped  and
are being helped by other higher than we in the scale of evolution,  and  we
would  create monstrosities.   Therefore the school of earth is an  absolute
necessity  to teach us to think right, and thereby create right in both  the
denser and the finer cosmic substances with which we have to work.


                              ________________


                             REBIRTH OF CHILDREN

                              QUESTION NO. 20.

   IT  IS STATED IN THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS THAT CHILDREN WHO DIE  IN  IN-
FANCY ARE BROUGHT TO REBIRTH IN FROM ONE TO TWENTY YEARS.  DO THEY RETURN TO
THE SAME STATION IN LIFE,  OR DO THEY SOMETIMES RETURN TO A DIFFERENT  ENVI-
RONMENT, MORE OR LESS DESIRABLE, FROM WEALTH TO POVERTY, OR VICE VERSA?

   ANSWER:   This question was asked years ago when the writer was a  novice
in the investigation of the spiritual world,  and it was answered  correctly
at that time.  But later investigations make it possible to give more detail


[PAGE 63]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

based  upon  what has actually happened in a considerable number  of  cases.
Notes were made of the results at the time of the investigations,  but these
have  been mislaid.   Nevertheless,  according to our recollection,  it  was
found that out of twenty children we watched who came to rebirth within five
years of the time of death,  fifteen or sixteen went back into the same fam-
ily.  It can be seen at the time when a child dies whether it will be a long
or  a  short time in the invisible worlds.   We therefore  selected  another
group  of twenty which are still in the invisible world and not expected  to
take  rebirth until ten or more years have passed.   But the tendencies  are
already quite plainly shown,  for when a Spirit seeks rebirth it is  usually
drawn to the prospective mother years before it enters the womb,  and  some-
times  women  still unmarried are surrounded by their  prospective  children
even before they have become engaged.   Judging from this fact what the  re-
sults will be,  we find that out of the group of twenty only three are stay-
ing with their former mothers; the other seventeen are scattered among other
families, and two of them are keeping company with small girls, showing that
they are waiting for them to grow up and become their mothers.

   This tendency of Spirits who are seeking embodiment to follow their  pro-
spective  mothers  around for years sometimes gives rise  to  laughable  and
embarrassing  situations in connections with mediums who do  not  understand
the conditions.  We remember the case  of  a young lady who went to a seance


[PAGE 64]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

and was told that she had a child in spirit land who was standing beside her
and  calling her mother.   Naturally she denied the allegation  indignantly,
and arose and left the meeting.   So there was a case where both were  right
through  making diametrically opposite statements;  each thought  the  other
dishonest  because each lacked the knowledge to reconcile the seemingly  ir-
reconcilable.


                            _____________________


                         DO TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT?

                              QUESTION NO. 21.


   YOU  STATE THAT FROM THE SPIRITUAL POINT OF VIEW ALL THINGS ARE GOOD,  OR
WORDS TO THAT EFFECT.   BUT TAKE, FOR INSTANCE THE UNSPEAKABLY VILE AND DAS-
TARDLY CRIMES BEING INFLICTED ON THE HELPLESS CIVILIAN POPULATION OF SOME OF
THE NATIONS IN THE WAR ZONE.   THE THEORY OF REBIRTH MIGHT ARGUE THAT  THESE
WRETCHED PEOPLE THUS SUFFERING MAY HAVE COMMITTED SIMILAR ATROCITIES IN PRE-
VIOUS EXISTENCES,  BUT EVEN SO DO TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT?   IN VIEW OF SUCH
CONDITIONS  ONE  FEELS  ALMOST DRIVEN AT TIMES TO TAKE  REFUGE  BEHIND  THAT
PHILOSOPHICAL  DOCTRINE WHICH TEACHES THAT THE REPORT OF THE SENSES  IS  IL-
LUSORY,  THE  BAD-DREAM THEORY,  AS AN EXPLANATION OF THE EVIL IN THE WORLD;


[PAGE 65]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

OR  SIMPLE MATERIALISM,  WHICH OF COURSE,  FROM ITS NATURE DOES NOT NEED  TO
MAKE ANY OF THE EXPLANATIONS EXPECTED OF SPIRITUAL TEACHING.   IS THERE  AN-
OTHER SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM?

   ANSWER:  Yes, indeed, there is, for although we with our finite minds are
unable  to grasp the intricate details of the tangled web of destiny,  still
the broad outline of the law of love which works for good through what seems
to be evil may be readily discerned by every one.   But before we enter into
direct  discussion of the question,  allow us to correct our  correspondent.
WE  DO NOT SAY THAT ALL THINGS ARE GOOD,  for if that were true it would  be
well  to continue these astrocities of which our correspondent speaks.   In-
stead,  we have always maintained and do still assert that every evil is re-
ally GOOD IN THE MAKING-that is to say, out of that condition something good
will come.  We do not shrink from calling a cloud a cloud, but we also point
to  the silver lining which shows that beyond and back of the cloud the  sun
still shines as beautifully as ever.  And if the sorrow and suffering caused
by  this war are the means of finally abolishing wars from the face  of  the
earth, surely the cost is not too great.

   From  you  remark  that the theory of rebirth argues  that  the  wretched
people  mentioned may have committed kindred atrocities in  previous  exist-
ences, it is evident that you are  under  the  common misconception that all


[PAGE 66]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

present conditions must be referred to actions in past lives,  and that  you
are  either  unaware of or have failed to take into consideration  the  fact
that  every  moment of our lives we are generating new destiny at  the  same
time that we are working out our old scores.   This great and important fact
was  set forth in the ancient Greek mythology,  where the Fates  are  repre-
sented  as three-past,  present,  and future;  also in the Norse  mythology,
where the three Norns, Urda, Skuld, and Verdande, are spinning the thread of
fate and unraveling it again.  Nor is fate simply a measure to get even.  If
in one life A stole from B and ruined him, we must not assume that a follow-
ing life B is going to become dishonest and steal from A.  That would indeed
be a bad solution of the problem,  for it is surely better for a man to lose
his money altogether than to retrieve it at the expense of his honesty.

   Similarly,  supposing  that in a previous existence,  as  suggested,  the
present victims of military atrocity were guilty of atrocities against those
who are now causing them suffering,  it would have been far better for their
soul  growth if they had no revenge rather than in this present life  to  be
made  into savage beasts.   If the latter were the way the law  works,  then
cruelties and atrocities would multiply, and one could only shudder to think
of what is in store for humanity in the next life when the injured  civilian
of today wreaks vengeance upon the heads of the present military aggressors.


[PAGE 67]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   But, thank God, that is not so, A study of the Memory of Nature has shown
conclusively  the  truth of the spiritual teaching that HATE CEASES  NOT  BY
HATE,  BUT BY LOVE AND SERVICE.  It has been found in all the cases investi-
gated  by  the writer-and they number hundreds-that whenever in one  life  a
person  has injured another,  the suffering brought upon himself by the  act
during  the purgatorial expiation following death has compelled  realization
and  repentance,  at least in a measure.  he is then placed  in  a  position
where  he may render some service to the one he injured when both return  to
physical life.   If he grasps the opportunity, well and good; then both par-
ties are benefited;  peace on earth and good will are fostered.   If he  re-
fuses  he  is placed in a position where coals of fire are heaped  upon  his
head,  and then in the third life he may be induced to pay the debt of  ser-
vice.   Or he may be made the victim of some one else's wrong-doing and thus
learn  the sympathy and fellow feeling which induces the  required  service.
But whatever the method, and the possible methods are legion, in some way or
other  the debt of hate will eventually be repaid by love,  for that is  the
only way that humanity can grow better.

   Applying these ideas to the present problem of the sufferings of the  ci-
vilian  population in the war zone (War World I),  and while admitting  that
the past may have something to do with it in some cases, it is undoubtedly a
fact that a vast amount of new destiny is now being generated,  both by  the
aggressors  and  the  victims.  Neither  should  it  be  forgotten  that the


[PAGE 68]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

aggressors are suffering great tribulations themselves as well as their vic-
tims.  It is a time of suffering all around, and the purgatorial experiences
of those who are now allowing their lower nature to run riot will be exceed-
ingly severe.  Then when a new life begins and they are placed in a position
where  they meet their victims,  the subconscious memory of the  purgatorial
suffering  will engender the vast majority a desire to make adequate  amend,
so that out of the fiery furnace of the present affliction there will come a
reign of peace on earth and good will among men.


                             __________________


                               REBIRTH AND SEX


                              QUESTION NO. 22.

   WHILE THEOSOPHY, REPRESENTING THE WISDOM OF THE EAST, AND THE ROSICRUCIAN
PHILOSOPHY,  THE WISDOM OF THE WEST, AGREE IN MANY RESPECTS,  THERE ARE CER-
TAIN  POINTS IN WHICH THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TEACHINGS  OF  THESE
TWO SCHOOLS OF OCCULTISM.  ONE OF THESE POINTS IS CONCERNING REBIRTH.   THE-
OSOPHY  TEACHES THAT THE INTERVAL BETWEEN EARTH LIVES OF THE AVERAGE EGO  IS
ABOUT FIVE THOUSAND YEARS, WHILE THE ROSICRUCIANS HOLD THAT IT IS ABOUT  ONE


[PAGE 69]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

THOUSAND YEARS.  WITH REFERENCE TO THE SEX OF THE EGO THE ROSICRUCIANS TEACH
THAT MALE AND FEMALE EMBODIMENTS ALTERNATE,  WHILE THEOSOPHY HOLDS THAT  THE
ALTERNATION OF SEX IS NOT IN INDIVIDUAL LIVES BUT BY SERIES; THAT IS,  A SE-
RIES OF SEVEN MALE EMBODIMENTS ALTERNATES WITH A FEMALE SERIES OF EQUAL NUM-
BER.  WILL YOU KINDLY EXPLAIN THESE DISCREPANCIES?

   ANSWER:   It  is our invariable rule never to criticize or  belittle  the
teachings  of any other spiritual movement.  Therefore we can only say  that
your are correct with respect to the teachings of the Rosicrucians, that the
Ego  is ordinarily reborn twice during the time it takes the sun by  preces-
sion  to go through a sign of the zodiac,  namely 2,100 years.   It is  also
taught  that these embodiments are alternately male and female  because  the
conditions on earth do not so appreciably change during two thousand  years,
and  the purpose is to give the Ego all the lessons that can be  drawn  from
experiences  on earth under each sign,  these varying from the man  and  the
woman.   Thus if the Ego is born once as a man and the next time as a  woman
under the same sign,  it will learn practically all the lessons that can  be
extracted from the conditions existing on earth under such planetary  vibra-
tions.

   Each neophyte is given the proof of this shortly after Initiation:  he is
first  told  to watch a certain Ego who is passing out of the body.  Then he


[PAGE 70]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

continues  to watch its life in the invisible world for a year or  two,  and
when  an enbodiment is found for it he knows the absolute truth of the  doc-
trine  of rebirth.   He is always given for this demonstration an Ego  which
passes out as a child, and therefore seeks a quick reembodiment.

   When that lesson has been learned and he knows from first-hand  knowledge
that rebirth is a fact in nature, he is taught to watch the lives of certain
people  in the Memory of Nature so that he may gain an understanding of  the
various details connected with this matter.  This,  however,  cannot be done
until the Initiate has learned to function in the Region of Concrete Thought
for  the etheric record of the Memory of Nature does not reach  sufficiently
into the past to give the detailed information.  Every Initiate who has pro-
gressed sufficiently far knows these matters as well as he knows his name.

   The Law of Rebirth is not a blind law.  It is under the administration of
four great Beings of wonderful knowledge and power.  They are called the Re-
cording  Angels in the Christian terminology.  When it is necessary to  vary
the  interval  between death and rebirth in the case of a certain  Ego,  the
necessary  modifications are made so that it may be a much longer or a  much
shorter time before it is reborn.

   It has been published in the newspaper reports of lectures given by  Mrs.
Besant, and it is also generally stated by her followers, that she claims to


[PAGE 71]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

have  been Hypatia in ancient Alexandria,  a woman.   It is also  said  that
later she was born as Giordana Bruno in Rome, and at the present time she is
again in a female embodiment.  This, if true, would bear out the teaching of
the  Rosicrucians rather than that of the school which,  as you say,  claims
there  are a series of seven male embodiments followed by a series of  seven
of the other sex.


                             __________________

                             OUT DEBT OF DESTINY

                              QUESTION NO. 23.

   IF  A  PERSON HAS A LIFE FULL OF HARDSHIP AT PRESENT AND STRIVES  TO  THE
BEST  OF  HIS OR HER ABILITY TO FULFILL ALL DUTIES,  WILL THE NEXT  LIFE  BE
LIVED UNDER EASIER AND MORE BEARABLE CIRCUMSTANCES;  OR IF HE IS AN ADVANCED
SOUL MUST HE HAVE HARDSHIPS IN ORDER TO LEARN TO HELP AND HEAL HUMANITY?

   ANSWER:   During the earlier part of its evolution mankind committed  the
most atrocious crimes because actuated entirely by selfishness and disregard
for other people's feelings.   In those early lives we were cunning,  cruel,
and  seldom  did a good deed.  In fact, it is recorded that at that time man


[PAGE 72]                                             ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY

spent  the whole of the interval between earth lives in the purgatorial  re-
gions  expiating the crimes he had committed during his physical  life,  and
there was not heaven life to speak of.   That was the condition spoken of in
the  Bible as "lost in trespasses of sin,"  which made it necessary for  the
Christ to enter the earth and attempt the task of raising the vibrations, so
that altruism might gradually conquer egoism and give us a heaven life  upon
which promotion and progression in our evolutionary career could be based.

   Now, it will be evident that during that period of degradation and sin we
contracted a great many heavy debts and obligations to one another which  we
must now work out by love, kindness, and service.   Each of us had this bur-
den of the past,  and it is that which constitutes the so-called DWELLER  ON
THE THRESHOLD.

   It is said,  and said truly, that thought "the mills of God grind slowly,
they grind exceeding fine,"  and every transgression under the law merits  a
just recompense.   Therefore the debt of the past must be paid,  and in  the
interval  between each two earth lives there is shown to us the pictures  of
that part of it which must them be paid by the ordinary processes of  evolu-
tion. We are them allowed to choose our future as we will from among the op-
portunities presented to us.   Therefore if the Ego is,  as you say,  an ad-
vanced one it will choose the hardest life possible so that it may the  more
quickly dissolve the burden of debt which ahs accumulated from the past; for


[PAGE 73]                                              QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

the more quickly it is liquidated, the sooner will the Spirit be ready to go
on  to its highest mission.   On the other hand,  it is said that "the  Lord
tempers  the  wind to the shorn lamb."  The weaker souls who are  unable  to
bear  up  under hardships are therefore given what we see  as  easier  lives
where  they may pay their debts in small coin,  a little at a time,  but  it
will  take correspondingly longer before they are finally  liberated.   Thus
there is a good reason why a Job is called a friend and favorite of God, and
why it is said that "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth."   By giving us all
we can bear according to our request and with our consent the great  Hierar-
chies who are in charge of evolution are really showing us favors.   This is
why the Christ called those blessed who were persecuted for His name's sake,
that is to say, as He emphasized, when it was falsely done.

   The light of occultism upon the problem of sorrow is one of the strongest
rays of hope to the one who is blessed with this knowledge.   It should give
us all heart to bear up under all affliction.   Whatever comes to us we have
earned,  and  if we are only careful to learn the lesson and to  render  the
help and the service required of us in each particular case,  then we may be
sure that we are not only liquidating debts of the past,  but also laying up
for  ourselves  treasures in heaven which will revert to us as  usable  soul
power to keep us on the path of rectitude in future lives.


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